30
votes
Canada expels top India diplomats, links them to murder of Sikh leader
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- Authors
- Krishn Kaushik, Sakshi Dayal, Promit Mukherjee
- Published
- Oct 15 2024
- Word count
- 935 words
I find this claim fascinating. Ridding one's country of foreign operatives who seek to use violence and intimidation against citizens and legal residents seeking asylum is, in fact, "a political agenda." One could be forgiven for assuming that everything a country's prime minister does in their official capacity is, by default, part of a political agenda. What could Trudeau possibly do as PM that can't be subsumed under the umbrella "a political agenda"? Even throwing out the first pitch at a Blue Jays game is part of a political agenda.
It's such a baldfaced weasel phrase, yet it somehow still carries rhetorical power. You really need nothing else to tell you that India is full of shit in this instance than that they fall back like cowards to meaningless bad faith tactics like this.
India's official diplomatic statement is pretty wild too: https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/38417/Indias_response_to_diplomatic_communication_from_Canada
Well, that just makes sense. I mean, everyone knows Canadian politics hinges on the internal conflicts of a country on the exact opposite side of the world.
Man, we're all familiar with Internet denizens having main character syndrome. It's weird seeing a national government with it that isn't the USA. That's OUR fuckin' job!
To be fair to the Indian government, we have 1.86 million Indo-Canadians living here, which is 5.1% of our population, with Sikhs making up the majority. There are also quite a few prominent Sikh MPs, MPPs and Mayors, and they make up a sizable portion of the Canadian Armed Forces too. So internal conflicts in India, and our government's response to them, actually does tend to matter a lot here.
p.s. And just to be clear, none of that justifies what India did. Assassinating one of our citizens on Canadian soil is inexcusable. But they're not necessarily wrong on that particular point.
I realized when I was writing that I wasn't really getting at why this response is so nuts, but I'm having a hard time putting into words just what seems so off-kilter about it.
It's just such a strange chain of logic: Trudeau is making these moves that they feel are hostile in order to "curry favor" (their words) with a political faction that has it out for Modi's government, and somehow that invalidates everything.
It's like a ten-year-old who comes home with a bad report card saying they got straight C- because the teacher doesn't like them. Grown people should hear that kind of thing and think, "there's probably something more going on there."
It puts me in mind of Putin whining about Russophobia. They don't seem to feel it necessary to explain why everybody secretly hates Russia, outside of a vague insinuation that it's because Russians are just the best and everyone is envious. Maybe they learned it from fat-assed American nationalists who unironically claim "they hate us for our freedoms!" Hell, at least that is the tiniest bit upfront about blaming it on envy.
Under their current leadership, India and Russia both just kinda say, "teacher doesn't like us for some unfounded reason, so anything teacher says or does is a cynical lie." It's baffling.
Oh, for sure, and I understood where you were coming from, so my comment wasn't meant as a total rebuke of your own comment. India is definitely being incredibly juvenile and petty in their response. The fact that they even refer to the Trudeau government as a "regime" is laughably absurd. The lady doth protest too much, methinks!
But like I said, India is also not necessarily wrong on that one very particular point; Indian internal conflicts actually do have a huge influence on our own politics here in Canada. That doesn't negate the validity of what Trudeau has done by rightfully expelling the diplomats implicated in the assassination. But there is also no denying that consideration of the Indian Sikh voters here was undoubtedly a factor when it came to the swiftness and severity of our government's response to these events.
Do they? You mentioned 5% of Canada is Indian, but I doubt those are all voting citizens. Immigration being a huge deal in Canadian politics is pretty different from internal Indian matters bleeding into Canadian election outcomes. If anything, China's foreign interference in Canada is a bigger electoral problem for the LDP.
China is definitely a huge influence on our elections too, but so is the situation in India, especially their conflict with the Sikhs, largely due to how influential a great many Sikh politicians have become here. E.g. Our previous Minister of Defense was Sikh. Ukraine is also a huge influence on our elections as well though, due to the 1.25M Ukrainians living here; the 3rd largest Ukrainian population in the world after Ukraine itself, and Russia. None of those are mutually exclusive. They are all true at the same time.
Many (most?) countries see themselves as the main character. We simply speak English and mostly hear about the US as the big mover and shaker. That said, Indians online have a reputation for being particularly nationalistic.
Previous discussions regarding the Sikh separatist assassinated in Canada:
https://tild.es/1aj6
https://tild.es/1ark